Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal on Monday tried to woo Muslim leaders and said ‘communalism is a bigger problem than corruption’.
Talking to the leaders of the Muslim community at the India Islamic Cultural Centre here, he said: “Communalism is a bigger problem than corruption because graft only results in loss of money but due to communalism, people lose their lives and families are shattered.”
However, he later corrected his statement and said both are big problems.
Before Kejriwal started speaking at the meeting, one of the organisers praised Kejriwal’s stance on the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and demanded formation of similar investigation teams to look into thousands of riots against Muslims, once the AAP comes into power.
To this, Kejriwal replied that he would order Special Investigation Teams in cases of riots against Muslims whenever he comes into power whether Haryana, Centre or anywhere.
“What is needed is deterrence and thus if even in one case we can get life sentence to perpetrators of the crime and top leaders of their organisations, then a tough message would go,” he added.
On a query regarding him fighting against BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, Kejriwal said he can give an assurance that “a very strong Aam Aadmi Party leader will fight against him” once the constituency from which he would fight Lok Sabha elections is announced.
Meanwhile, the former Delhi CM wrote a letter to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi asking him whether he would give ticket to ministers who have corruption charges against them in the Lok Sabha polls.